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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23765470">Where Bluebirds Fly</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/marquis1305/pseuds/marquis1305'>marquis1305</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Somewhere Over the Rainbow [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Cryofreeze (Marvel), F/M, Field Nurse Reader, Fix-It, Mentions of War, Of my own fic, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Reunions, Super Soldier Serum, mentions of trauma</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:08:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,497</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23765470</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/marquis1305/pseuds/marquis1305</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After Bucky lost Steve, he felt like he had lost everything. </p>
<p>Until Steve gave him something back...</p>
<p>Gave him Someone back... The only person who could make it all right.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Somewhere Over the Rainbow [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1712065</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Where Bluebirds Fly</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/xCake/gifts">xCake</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>My triumphant return to writing and it's not in one of my main series... *sigh*. I apologize to anyone following me, or my Silk and Steel or Out of Time series. Life went crazy and then came quarantine. I'm working my way towards building my energy levels back up, and dusting off this fix it fic was the perfect way to do it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>You could hear the slow humming first, followed by quiet hisses. Your eyes not quite able to open, still too heavy from your sleep. Your mouth dry, lips cracked. A soft groan rumbled through your chest as you took stock of the many little aches and pains that your body was making known. A lingering cold biting at your extremities.</p>
<p>And beyond that, muffled voices. Too far away to hear, or as if you were underwater. </p>
<p>Until a small hiss became your lifeline. </p>
<p>The noise encompassing your every sense. Jarring through the very echoes of your soul. Your consciousness oozing slowly back into your cells. Wading your way back to waking. </p>
<p>A sudden cacophony of awareness hits you all at once as you stumble forward, half ejected from where you had been standing. Laying? But now you’re surrounded in warmth, anchoring you as your eyes blink open, whining softly at lights too bright to be natural.</p>
<p>“Give her a moment, not everyone can be as quick as you to re-orientate, brother.” An accent you don’t recognize flits through the room, lilting and amused. A new sensation, a hand, pressed on your shoulder. “Stop being an idiot. Guide her to the chair” The amusement had turned to gentle prodding. </p>
<p>Turning your head to find the source of the voice. A pair of warm brown eyes meets yours. A smile, wide and curling just at the edges of the lips. Giving you a small nod. “There we go, just let the idiot take care of you. Small steps now.”<br/><br/>The warmth keeping you from collapsing slowly begins to move. And then you’re being guided down to a chair. A glass of water being offered from the side. You take it to lift to your lips.<br/><br/>“Don’t-”<br/><br/>“Drink too fast. I know. I’m a field nurse.” You manage a wry smile, your voice weak and raspy, as though it had gone too long without use. Lifting the cup to your lips before you were suddenly freezing halfway through the motion. Eyes going wide as you lifted your head to look at the woman. “The mortars? Did anyone else survive? Who’s your unit commander?”<br/><br/>The woman laughs softly. “My name is Shuri, and don’t worry, you’re safe. I have the files here, my idiot brother thought you might want to look over them, it would appear that he can use that head of his for something other than smashing into people.” Shuri kneels before you, offering the manilla envelope, marked with a red “Classified” sharply across the top.<br/><br/>“Why?”<br/><br/>“Because there is more to the story, but that is not my main concern. Right now, I am here to keep you from going into shock.” Shuri tapped at the bracelet she held. A gasp fell from your lips as a screen popped up from it. Trying to watch as the information pulsed through, brow furrowing.<br/><br/>“That-”<br/><br/>“Yes. Your vitals. I’m currently monitoring them, but it would seem that you are more durable than we had thought. Which makes sense with the findings that Erskine had left in your file, and Howard Stark.” Shuri nods, tapping at the screen once more. “Now, I’m going to leave you two alone, because he has more experience explaining these things. And I don’t want to see our white wolf getting sappy again.” Nodding to the presence behind you before pulling away. Exiting the room with the small hiss of a door. </p>
<p>“Gotta say, doll, look just as good as the day I put that ring on your finger.”</p>
<p>You whip about in the chair, which was a very obviously bad idea, swaying almost immediately to the side with another muffled whine as your head started to spin. “Easy now. Easy, I’ve got you…” </p>
<p>And then Bucky is drawing you into his arms. </p>
<p>Anchoring you, as he ever had. As you could only hope that he would have had the chance to do again, when the mortars had gone off.</p>
<p>A dream. A pleasant dream. Perhaps this was your heaven. Your land of Oz. To be held by this man who had likely died protecting what he never realized what was lost. To be loved by your sargent, the way that you had never been able to, as the world was torn apart around you. The solace that stolen moments had given, now yours for eternity.</p>
<p>Then you heard his chuckle, that warm, heavenly chuckle. Watched the wry turn of his lips, the way that his eyes crinkled up in the corners, lines you couldn’t remember having been there before. </p>
<p> “Well doll, don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”<br/><br/>With that, the spell is broken, laughter pealing out from your lips before you could even realize what the sound was. Lifting up just enough to throw your arms around his neck, to allow him to cradle you close. “You’re such a bastard.”<br/><br/>“Hey now, doll, I knew my pops. Don’t need to be nasty about it after you just woke up.” Bucky was laughing again, but you could tell that there was something… something dark, holding him back. That this wasn’t the man you had last seen on the battlefield. </p>
<p>That last glance before he had left again… Before he had been gone for too long… Before…</p>
<p>“What happened?”<br/><br/>“Too much to explain here, doll, but I promise, I’m gonna tell you everything.” Bucky sighed before he was lifting you into his arms. The ease of the motion familiar and alien all at once. “Come on, I’ve got something to show you.” </p>
<p>You wet your lips, but nod. This one man, in all the world, you would walk into the very fires of Hades beside. </p>
<p>He moves you through a short series of hallways. The light less harsh than it had been… In what you are now assuming was an examination room. Then slowly opening a door, glancing down to you in what you could only assume was nervousness, a quality you didn’t associate with your sargent. And stepped through. </p>
<p>You laughed softly, it looked as though someone had taken a cinema room, and laid couches around the floor. As if to combine a classic living room with the theatre. The sheer extravagance of it made you scoff. Lifting a brow up to Bucky. “Didn’t know a sargent’s pay could afford a private cinema, Soldier.”<br/><br/>“What can I say? Only the best for my girl.” Bucky chuckled, moving to set you down onto the couch, taking the seat beside you. Slipping his hand into yours before reaching for… You weren’t entirely certain what it was, only that you gasped as the screen suddenly came to life. And yet… </p>
<p>“There isn’t a projector here, where is the film coming from?”<br/><br/>“Part of the things I need to explain… Don’t have projectors anymore, Doll. Everything’s set up to come to life right on the screen.” Nodding as the movie began to play. </p>
<p>As your movie began to play. </p>
<p>Eyes watering as you sat through the beginning of the film, listening to Dorothy’s voice as she started her song. The song that you had sung a dozen times. </p>
<p>“Seems like we’re over the rainbow, doll, and bluebirds have certainly gotta be flying… Because I never…” You turned to Bucky, shocked at the sound of a sob. Moving to wrap your arms around him, your soldier come home to you. </p>
<p>“I’m here, Bucky. I’m here.”<br/><br/>“And I’m never gonna let you go.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>‘Buck,</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>I know that I said I’d be with you to the end of the line, but this is the end of the line for me. You’ll know by now that I didn’t turn back, I’ve stayed here with Peggy, and we’re happy. Expecting a kid soon. Sarah for a girl… James for a boy.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> I’m sorry if it feels like I’ve abandoned you. I would be there at your side every day if I could. But the truth is that you fit into that world so much better than I ever did. You’ve always been quicker to adapt. You’ve got Sam there to help you through it. If you give him a chance. And me… I’m just a soldier who’s lived through one too many wars. Don’t know how much fight I’ve got left in me Buck, not after losing you and Sam for five years, and now Tony… Nat… So instead I’m choosing to set down the shield. Give myself a chance for some peace. I hope that you can do the same. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>We both know who the right person is to pick that shield back up.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>And maybe by doing what I’ve done, I can earn a little forgiveness in your eyes. Set a few things right. Least I can do for my best friend.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>After all, you were always such a sap when you could hear her singing. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Steve</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>P.S. We’ve made sure that she’s got a fighting chance of kicking your ass on the field again… And saving it. Do right by her.’</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>You can always reach out to me in the comments, or follow me on tumblr @marquiswrites or @marquis1305</p></blockquote></div></div>
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